All in all I'd say that Canyon is Grand

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We four physicists from the UK gathered for breakfast as soon as the hotel restaurant opened at 7am. I was wearing my Spider-man t-shirt quite proudly and was quite buzzing with excitement. Our tour-guide, Jim, arrived promptly at 7:20 and dragged us away from our omelettes, French toast, muffins, melon... Clinging onto our Styrofoam cups of tea, we went out into the Phoenix dawn.

Our transportation was a minibus with Jim piloting and giving us a running commentary for at least an hour. He described the types of plant (the ancient cartoon cacti which so should be wearing cowboy hats the way they do in the cartoons... also, apparently, plants he claimed were older than the giant redwoods). He described the geology of the area (dessert turning to prairie, a "moon" landscape due to the lack of glacial erosion this far south). He passed around fossils of bone and petrified wood. Ah, Jim. Good man.

We stopped off briefly at Sodona which, he said, the founder named after his wife but only after advice from the local postmaster. He described it as a town with 99% of its industry geared towards tourism. And rich tourists at that. There were shops that sold everything... small speciality stores. And sculptures adorned the area, even the gas stations. However, I wasn't that impressed. Red rocks in Arizona don't compare to the alien landscape of Utah. Well, not to me.

Next we stopped for lunch at Wendys. Apparently it was the only thing open. I suffered half a cheeseburger and a few fries. Ugh.

But then was the highlight. We were taken to a helicopter port. After being weighed and shown the safety video (if you should open the door by accident, please inform the pilot...) we were let out onto the field. The noise and wind from the moving blades was awesome. I had brief flashes of the severed arm moment on ER* but got into the helicopter without hesitation.

I had the seat next to the pilot.

It was fantastic. I had a large window to the side of me, the large windscreen in the front, and even a window by my feet so I could see straight down.

I barely noticed the pilot take off. She twitched the controls and slowly the ground fell below me. There was no sense of acceleration as you may feel in a lift. I was just slowly rising upwards. She maintained a steady height as we traversed a forest by the side of the south rim. I could hardly believe we were anything more than a few metres above the ground and that they weren't just small shrubs beneath us. But we were high and they weren't shrubs, they were trees. As we flew over the snowy woodland, she played "soundtrack" music. Great atmospheric stuff that put me in mind of Narnia and made this journey all the more magical.

After about five minutes we came to the Grand Canyon. I knew what to expect as I had been to the North Rim before. But in a helicopter it was obviously different and I gasped and grinned and had to pinch myself to check I wasn't dreaming. Ha, she played the 2001 music as we went over the edge and into the full majesty of the canyon.

Before learning better last August, I expected the canyon to be straight sides plummeting to a wide, flat base, worn by a meandering river. It certainly isn't. It is an overwhelming expanse of rock formations. There is no sense of scale to judge it. Everywhere you look there are new (huge) rock shapes and colours. When viewed from the North Rim it seemed to be a series of walls of rock before me which was rather disappointing. However looking from above you can see the valleys and the river carving through it and it makes a lot more sense.

If it wasn't for the fact I was getting queasy, I would have been upset to leave. The flight lasted about half an hour but I could not tell you where the time went. It felt so brief.

The rest of the day was quite understandably dull in comparison. We went to viewpoints to get shots of the canyon that paled in comparison to the ones we got from above. It was below freezing and there was snow on the ground so we mainly huddled in the gift shops admiring the prickly pear cactus jelly or the jalapeno pepper jam.

Our last stop was at a trading post in the Navajo reservation. I don't know what to think of this state of affairs. It seems awful to me how bleak and lifeless this reservation is. I see trailers tapping into the power lines and stalls lining the highway selling trinkets to tourists. It seems... devoid of life. Devoid of respect. It seems awful to me that all I see are examples of people living off the leavings of the rich non-Indian Americans and overseas tourists. I hope that there is more to this than I am seeing.

So, happy thoughts about the helicopter ride swam through my mind on the long trip back (via KFC for some semi-edible dinner). I am glad I went back to do the wonder properly. And ooh I want a helicopter. Ooh I want I want.




* Quite simply, a doctor is on the roof where the helipad is for the emergency cases. He drops his clipboard and bends down to pick it up. He stands. Minus an arm. This started the most twisted arc I have ever seen on that show... in the end the same doctor is standing outside the hospital and high winds make a helicopter landing on the roof get out of control. It falls. Splat. On the doctor.

Obsession

email to You Know Who:

Tra la la. Quarter past eleven. That is like the beginning of an evening to you, isn't it? But to me it is bedtime. With a new and delicious Spidey book! Honestly this is amazing... I almost want to get you reading Spideys. I made Amy read them all. I think she likes it. I think. Oh this one made me gasp with shock within three pages. I follow two comics: Ultimate and Amazing. Amazing is the official story (in fact, all of the other titles are official too... so I don't mean official I mean... main... er... principal?) and Spidey is late twenties, married and currently, and rather worryingly, sick. I mean really sick. I am petrified for him... it fills me with dread. I think they are really going to do it. Really going to make him... less super. There is a new costume you see. And it is designed by Tony Stark who designed his own Iron Man suit because he lost the ability to walk and it... you know... walked for him. Kind of thing. So... yes. Worried.

But Ultimate... well, it was launched approximately the same time as the first film. Well, a bit earlier. And it is the retelling right from the start. But updated for the 21st century. Because the original is rather naff. So instead of being a photographer, he does the webpage for the daily Bugle. And Aunt May isn't doddering but she is a bit of an old hippy... anyway. There is a point. and it is that it isn't just a retelling. You think you know the story. It plays out similarly. But then it turns and does something that wasn't in the original. And it is such a shock. Such an awesome shock. So one major crime-lord villain is called Silvermane. And he is plotting in the opening pages of my new book. And on page three he gets killed. That was shocking. Oh and then there is laughter as Spidey does wisecracking and he then makes a comment on the whole "Spider-man: No more" thing which is one of those huge phrases. The final page of issue 50. A sentinel moment. And rightfully picked up and used well in Spidey 2. And also used in the recent cartoon (which I will force you to watch one day... I mean... lend to you). So in this book he says "Peter Parker: No more". It's that kind of turning things on their head that makes this series great. He is skipping school and shunning MJ and spending more time as Spidey which is great as lots of gorgeously huge pictures of Spidey adorn the pages. And it is playing with the Black Cat story. Black Cat is Spidey's girlfriend. I think he only gets one really as normally PP gets the girls and Spidey just saves them... but Cat falls for Spidey. Anyway, I love Cat and her interactions with the official spidey. This one is different though because Cat is about 10 years Peter's senior. But she doesn't know that. And kisses and flirts anyway. And Peter seems delightfully caught up in her.

Two dozen

Yesterday was my birthday as I am sure everyone noticed.

<-- My haul. All birthday cards and presents are shown except a bucket o' Maltesers I left in the UK due to lack of suitcase space. I skyped the parentals and opened everything "in front" of them at around 8 and then made myself a huge fry-up and pot of tea for around 9. Mary-Rose joined me for tea and I opened presents from her. I didn't bother to wash the dishes leaving myself a nice surprise for this morning. Instead I watched the Battlestar Galactica I was too tired to watch the night before. Mary-Rose and I caught the 11:34 train into San Francisco and hurried up to Lush where I made her try all the testers. Maybe on the next visit I will actually buy some stuff for myself! I smiled at the items called "Angel's Delight" and "Serenity" but resisted the urge to buy. We then caught the muni through Golden Gate Park to the ocean where Mary-Rose treated me to a great lunch with a very pretty rum based cocktail. By this point it was 4 o'clock and all our plans for the day were kind of scuppered. But we still had time to catch a taxi to the Japanese Tea Gardens which were beautiful and we sipped tea as the sun went down. Then followed a walk down Haight where I found some brilliant alternative-wear shops. But despite the birthday money burning a hole in my pocket... again showed restraint. Dead on my feet, we got a taxi back to the station and came home where I collapsed in front of SG1 with a lasagne for one.

Kind of odd really. I didn't buy much stuff. I only had one drink. I didn't do all that much. But I had a great day. A great relaxing day.

On the twelfth day of Christmas

Christmas at chezbob was rushing out to get a "decorated pine" on my final day in the states for 2005. The lights went up in November and look so good they will stay all year round. I also drank mulled wine and ate Lebkuchen with my land-lady and got rather jolly- jolly enough to dare to open the large gift Rian sent. And it is displayed in rather full glory here- the snowglobe. Maybe it was the wine but I definitely felt a tear when I saw it. There is a moral to this tale. It has something to do with telling people "from the Internet" your childhood memories. I can't work out whether the moral is that you should do this as you get great rewards like this or that you shouldn't do this as you get a debt that you can never hope to repay. Oh, Rian should also recognise the lolly. All the presents are for other people including the crazy kitkats.

The Christmas tree at Home was a little more impressive though a little smaller than usual. We didn't even have to chop the top off it to make it fit as we normally do. It was decorated at always by me in utter haste on Christmas Eve.

A rare photo here of my family on Christmas Day taken at Jamie's Godmother's house. Egads, whoever took this photo must have been shaking a lot. Oh well. The blur just makes us prettier.